MARKET REPORT: Bonmarche makes spectacular debut on AIM less than two years after being bought out of administration

Over-50s fashion retailer Bonmarche strutted its stuff as it staged a spectacular debut on the junior AIM market less than two years after being bought out of administration.

Placed at £2 a pop by broker Investec, shares of one of the UK’s largest women’s value retailers focused on selling affordable, premium quality clothing and accessories to women over 50, closed at 220.5p for a 12 per cent premium.

The flotation marks a significant turnaround for the retailer after its parent company Peacocks was forced to call in administrators last year.

Bonmarche was founded in 1982 in
Doncaster but ran into trouble as it tried to chase young customers and
opened a chain of stores across the country.

Private equity firm Sun European Partners bought Bonmarche from administrators and has sold 40pc of the shares in the float.

Tim
Mason, the former deputy chief executive of Tesco who headed its Fresh
& Easy venture in the US is chairman, while Beth Butterwick is chief
executive.

Its
shares left the 155p placing price miles behind as buyers chased the
stock up to a close of 216p, for an opening premium of 39 per cent.

The
£11m raised will help fund growth and enable the company to begin the
next phase of development and strengthen relationships with its
partners.

Profit-taking
on concerns that Fed minutes of the October FOMC meeting – due
after-hours – may contain key clues about the likelihood of a December
taper, left the Footsie 16.93 points easier at 6,681.08.

More...

Wall
Street edged up 17 points in early trading on hopes that the minutes
would confirm that the Fed’s stimulus measures would remain in place for
the foreseeable future. Aberdeen Asset Management jumped 16.8p to 492p
after the City warmed to its £550m acquisition of Scottish Widows
Investment Partnership from Lloyds Banking Group.

Satellite
TV broadcaster BSkyB rose 10p to 835p after chief executive Jeremy
Darroch, at a Morgan Stanley conference in Barcelona, revealed the
advertising market has been better-than-expected. He also said that he
is keen to sign a mutual wholesale deal with BT (3.7p easier at 376.1p)
so both groups can offer customers the full range of live sports. BSkyB
lost the rights to show Champions League football to BT earlier this
month.

Reflecting
reports it is losing out to discount supermarket Aldi and upmarket
Waitrose in the lead up to Christmas, J Sainsbury lost 6.9p to 404.8p.

Asda
also revealed it has teamed up with Transport for London to enable
customers to pick up shopping ordered online from six London Underground
station car parks.

Kentz
Corporation advanced 13p to 555p after announcing the award by Qatar
Petroleum for the engineering, procurement, installation and
commissioning for wellhead industrial control systems, alongside
corrosion protection, for about 775 wells across the Dukhan Oilfield,
Qatar. Liberum Capital lifted its target price to 650p from 610p.

Parcel delivery company UK Mail rustled up a gain of 30p at 615p after a positive half-year report.

Group
revenue was 8 per cent with operating profits ahead of expectations, up
63pc following a strong performance in the Parcels business. Parcels
revenue was up 19 per cent.

Another
day, another bullish trading update from Judges Scientific, 45p higher
at 1775p. The AIM-listed scientific instruments group said that
full-year profits for 2013 will now exceed forecasts.

Broker
Shore Capital increased its 2013 earnings per share forecasts by 5 per
cent to 90.5p. Shares of Plus500, the leading online service provider
for retail investors to trade Contract for Differences (CFDs)
internationally, soared 29.5p or 16 per cent to 213p after the company
said that trading had already exceeded market expectations for the year
ending December 2013.

International
Personal Finance, the home credit business, improved 14p to 590p as
buyers approved the appointment of Adrian Gardner to its board as chief
financial officer. David Broadbent, who has been finance director since
2007, is to become chief commercial officer.

Demand
on the back of an upbeat trading statement helped field service
management firm ServicePower Technologies climb 1.5p or 41 per cent to
5.12p. Strong growth in revenue recorded in the first half has continued
into the second half of the year.

Broker Killik
says the prospective yield on UK equities at 3.69 per cent is currently
ahead of both the 20-year average of 3.25 per cent and well ahead of
returns on cash and the 10-year gilt yield of 2.72 per cent.

With
interest rates remaining low for some time and strong corporate balance
sheets providing the flexibility for companies to pay progressive
dividends, investors should buy Berkeley, BHP Billiton, HSBC, National
Grid and Unilever for dividend income.